Broward murder suspect wins Stand Your Ground decision

FORT LAUDERDALE — For the first time, a Broward County man has successfully used the state's "Stand Your Ground" law to block his prosecution on a first-degree murder charge.

Nour Badi Jarkas, 54, of Plantation, was facing trial for the January 2009 shooting death of his estranged wife's boyfriend, John Concannon. But Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes ordered an acquittal after finding that Jarkas was an invited guest in his wife's home and felt threatened during a confrontation with the victim.

Prosecutors said Monday they will not appeal.

"We're pleased with the judge's ruling," said Jarkas' lawyer, H. Dohn Williams. "We think it was the right decision."

Jarkas is still in custody at the Broward Main Jail awaiting a hearing on Thursday, but Williams said he would try to get his client released before that.

Jarkas had already been tried on the murder charge and related accusations early last year. The jury found him not guilty of armed kidnapping and aggravated assault with a firearm, but could not reach a unanimous verdict on the murder count.

Months after the jurors deadlocked, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the Stand Your Ground law, passed in 2005, is intended to keep certain self-defense cases from ever getting to a jury. In Palm Beach County, the first successful use of the law for that purpose came in September. Circuit Judge Richard Oftedal dismissed first-degree murder charges against Michael Monahan, a disabled veteran who shot and killed two men who reportedly cornered him in the cabin of his sailboat.

In Broward, Jarkas was one of three defendants hoping to get their first-degree murder charges tossed out as well. He is the first to succeed. The other cases are pending. Other non-murder cases in the county have already been dismissed under the law, according to the State Attorney's Office.

In Jarkas' case, "nothing was presented … to rebut the reasonableness of the fear that [Jarkas] testified that he had in being confronted by a 5-foot-11, 280-pound, tattooed man who was angry and who lunged at him," Holmes said in a written decision sent to prosecutors and Jarkas' lawyer last week.

Williams said he encouraged his client to testify when the case first went to trial in January 2010, believing the self-defense claim would resonate with the jury. Jarkas told jurors that he was invited to his wife's home in the 9800 block of Southwest First Street in Plantation, and that she left the residence when Concannon, 56, arrived. Concannon taunted Jarkas, grabbed him, struck him and threatened to kill him, Jarkas said.

"You're not going anywhere; I'm going to kill you here," Jarkas said the victim told him.

An assistant medical examiner who conducted the autopsy said Concannon was shot four times, and that he might have been lunging at Jarkas when shot, as Jarkas testified. He also said the victim might have been seated.

Holmes said she relied on the testimony of Jarkas and the medical examiner in issuing her ruling.

Prosecutors argued that Jarkas had been plotting to kill Concannon and had bought his gun for that purpose.

Jurors could not decide who was right. But Holmes said the majority of the evidence supported Jarkas' account.

The decision upset the victim's son, Joseph Concannon, who denied his father was the aggressor.

"Jarkas gave a full confession to Plantation police," he said in an email. "He confessed he was going to kill my father, his estranged wife and then kill himself." Concannon said his father was ambushed and held at gunpoint against his will, and was seated when shot.

"This man took away my father, a man who served our country in the Navy, a man who has five grandchildren who loved him to pieces," Concannon said. "He's gone forever. His murderer is about to walk free."

Brian Cavanagh, head of the state attorney's homicide unit, said he was concerned that the Stand Your Ground law would encourage violent ends to confrontations because it removes a citizen's duty to retreat. Although he did not criticize the judge's ruling, Cavanagh said juries should be allowed the final say about who's telling the truth when prosecutors and defendants disagree.

"As the law stands, it contradicts the entire purpose behind the justice system," Cavanaugh said. "It takes the decision out of the hands of the jurors."

Another high-profile Broward defendant invoking the law, James Patrick Wonder, is facing manslaughter charges in the death of a federal agent following a road rage incident in 2008. A judge is set to hear Wonder's stand-your-ground defense next month.